Gotta Have Gadget

I cannot stress enough how important it is to back up your computer.  As a matter of fact half way through this article, my regular laptop died.  Fortunately I had the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies SimpleTOUGH portable USB drive.  Right before I start to write this article, I backed-up my files and even did an easy file transfer just in case.  I was so happy I did because the laptop continued to randomly shut off.  Not only was it annoying, but I would lose several paragraphs I wrote.  So I connected the SimpleTOUGH via the USB cable to the new laptop, and all my files, settings, pictures and music was transferred.  Read the rest of this entry »

Since I have recommended a lot of electronics, this next item fits perfectly!  If your kitchen counter looks anything like mine, you have cell phones, Blackberry, iPods and other items being charged and wires sticking up everywhere.  The Powermat allows you to charge multiple devices on one Powermat.  Once connected, simply place your device on the Powermat and you will have a full charge in no time.  The Powermat also works with various devices such as cell phones, GPS systems, Bluetooth headsets and more.  Simply visit www.powermat.com, type in what you need to charge, and the site will tell you exactly what you need to be up and running.  So for a gadget guy like me, the Powermat not only helps to organize the counter top, but has everything I need in one central location so when I leave the house I have all my gadgets fully charged and ready to go!

With so many digital cameras out there today, most pictures are stuck on a hard drive somewhere and not displayed like they should be in the living room or your desk at work.  When you purchase the HP Digital Picture Frame, take it out of the box, and pre-load it with pictures of the family for dad.  When he opens the box, turn on the frame so he can see the work you have done and instantly display his favorite pictures.  If you feel really ambitious, you can load a video or a photo slide show with Dads favorite music.  The HP Digital Picture Frame has 512MB of internal memory, however I used a Verbatim USB Flash Drive with over 2 Gig of memory so I could display as many pictures as I wanted.  Just load up the flash drive, plug it into the USB port, hit slide show and all your pictures will be displayed proudly.  The quality is outstanding, and the HP Digital Picture Frame comes with double mats to match the decor of your room.  Visit shopping.hp.com for more information.

I have been writing a golf version of this column for West Coast Golfer for about a year. When you write a column like this you get a lot of high-resolution images and press material. I have an older laptop, and all this material was taking up a lot of space on my hard drive. That issue was quickly fixed with the SimpleTech Signature Mini USB Drive. When I opened up the package, my first thought was, OK this thing is pretty small, how much space will it really free up on my laptop? This mini USB hard drive holds 500 gigs! Simply moving all the high-resolution photos, and my iTunes music library free up almost the entire hard drive on my laptop. My laptop is running fast again, and it is extremely easy to plug in the SimpleTech Signature Mini USB Drive and access any of the files I moved to this drive. It is also a great drive to use to back-up all your important data. Not too many people utilize a back-up drive and then become devastated if they get a virus or a major hard drive crash. Dont put yourself in a position to lose all your data, be prepared by visiting www.simpletech.com.